History Main / JealousRomanticWitness

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': In season 2 episode 5, while promenading and courting Edwina, Anthony Bridgerton glares jealously at Kate Sharma and her seemingly-suitor, Thomas Dorset, having fun on a boat. He eventually comes over trying to upstage Dorset in courting Kate. [[spoiler:[[HilarityEnsues It doesn't end well]]]].

This is almost always PlayedForDrama. The witness is usually the protagonist or a character whose insecurities are already familiar to the audience, making the sting that much more painful. A particularly nasty rival will subject them to this intentionally, especially if the triangle is between the "cool guy" and the AlphaBitch. Other times, the lovers won't know they're being watched, making it less malicious but still hurtful for the watcher. In all cases, it's a slap in the face to the witness, who will more than likely use this moment as proof that they've "lost" the love competition. Expect tears to follow...or a GreenEyedEpiphany, if they react with jealousy rather than anguish. If the jealousy is the intended reaction, it's OperationJealousy. All that said however, antagonists can be on the receiving end too, which will either be seen as fitting karma or an explanation for their bitterness later on.

This is almost always PlayedForDrama. The witness is usually the protagonist or a character whose insecurities are already familiar to the audience, making the sting that much more painful. A particularly nasty rival will subject them to this intentionally, especially if the triangle is between the CoolLoser and the AlphaBitch. Other times, the lovers won't know they're being watched, making it less malicious but still hurtful for the watcher. In all cases, it's a slap in the face to the witness, who will more than likely use this moment as proof that they've "lost" the love competition. Expect tears to follow...or a GreenEyedEpiphany, if they react with jealousy rather than anguish. If the jealousy is the intended reaction, it's OperationJealousy. All that said however, antagonists can be on the receiving end too, which will either be seen as fitting karma or an explanation for their bitterness later on.

* In ''WebOriginal/BrigScarletFlamingo'', after Joseph has his LoveAtFirstSight moment with Yvonne, he is forced to watch her talking tenderly and kissing with her fiance Jerome. Since he immediately realises she is rich and he at that point is a vagabond who thinks his GloryDays are gone, he doesn't harbour any resentment towards it and, in fact, the sight of the couple prompts him to return Yvonne's engagement ring which he had previously stolen from her in a crowd before actually seeing the girl face to face.

Non-consensual moments only count if the lack of consent isn't immediately obvious to the witness. A tricked or brainwashed love-interest, for example, may play into the flirting without actually wanting to. A victim of blatant sexual assault, on the other hand, is very obviously not in control of what they're doing, so the impact comes from a [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil different source.]] Beyond that, the extent of the "flirting" is quite broad, as this trope is more about the reaction and impact rather than the lovers themselves.

Being in love can be hard, mostly for one reason: There's no guarantee your crush will feel the same. Indeed, in fiction, it's far more likely that you'll ''at least'' have to deal with a LoveTriangle or two before you can be happy, but the rule with a love triangle is that they run on drama and angst from all characters involved. One easy way to add some tragedy is for a love-struck character to be an unwilling witness to their love and their rival doing anything from flirting and blushing, to [[SexInASharedRoom outright doing the dirty.]]

* In ''Manga/FullMoon'', poor Meroko gets this with multiple love interests. [[spoiler: As a human, one of the events that drove her to suicide was seeing her best friend kissing the boy she loved. She also overhears Takuto's AnguishedDeclarationOfLove to Mitsuki about halfway through the plot.]]

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars The Clone Wars]]'', Anakin and Padme have to keep their marriage a secret. She is sent on several diplomatic missions that include an old flame of hers, Rush Clovis. Rush keeps trying to rekindle things between them, while she accepts his advances and responds in kind without actually getting involved with him again. Whenever Anakin is present, he can't keep himself from getting angry and jealous.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': [[spoiler:Korra makes the move and kisses Mako after a few episodes of BeligerentSexualTension... right as [[DoggedNiceGuy Bolin]] showed up to confess his feelings to Korra. Bolin then runs away in tears causing Mako to go after him, making an already awkward moment even worse.]]

* ''FilmTitanic1997'': At the end of the movie, [[spoiler:Rose is seen reunited with Jack aboard the Titanic and other passengers, all of which applaud them... all except Cal, who's looking distinctly unhappy.]]

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In the sixth episode, Antoinette Brown is smoking a cigarette outside of her home, upset and quietly shedding tears while looking inside her bedroom window as her lover Lestat de Lioncourt and his boyfriend Louis de Pointe du Lac lose themselves in [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence wild, spur-of-the-moment sex]]. Both men threw her out from ''her own house'', so Lestat ([[InterruptedIntimacy who was in coitus with Antoinette before Louis broke down her door]]) is making it ''very'' clear to her that he loves Louis more than her.

* The ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series runs off of these moments between Bella, TheRival Jacob, and OneTrueLove Edward, with the latter two [[ExploitedTrope baiting Bella into such moments]] by the third book in order to make their romantic claims on her that much more apparent to one another. This peaks in ''Eclipse'' when the three [[MakesSenseInContext have to camp in the woods in the middle of winter]] and Bella begins to freeze. Edward cannot help since as a vampire, his skin is ice cold. Jacob however runs very warm due to his shapeshifter nature and thus Bella has to share his sleeping bag with him in order to keep warm. The entire chapter that follows is a conversation between Edward and Jacob discussing Jacob's smugness over the situation, their feelings for Bella, and her feelings towards both of them.

[[quoterigth:350:[[WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jrw_star.png]]]]

[[quoteright:319:[[Series/DreamHigh https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dreamhighkiss.png]]]]

* In ''Literature/OnlyTheRingFingerKnows'', Wataru watches Kazuki walk arm-in-arm his female cousin while she calls him her "favorite guy" and immediately decides that he's in love with Kazuki and also that he needs to give up on him. After finding out she's his cousin...he still thinks she's a more viable love interest than he is.
* ''LightNovel/{{Osamake}}'' has an interesting case where due to it being a {{Harem|Genre}}, any of Suehara's {{Love Interest}}s seeing him "flirt" with another girl is enough to make them jealous, sad, or angry. However, it's more prominent with his childhood friend Kuroha, who dejectedly watches him make a fuss about [[AloofDarkHairedGirl Shirokusa]]'s hurt foot all throughout episode 9, especially since Shiro is his FirstLove and her rival. Kuroha admits that seeing them together felt worse than when she rejected him.

* In ''LightNovel/OnlyTheRingFingerKnows'', Wataru watches Kazuki walk arm-in-arm his female cousin while she calls him her "favorite guy" and immediately decides that he's in love with Kazuki and also that he needs to give up on him. After finding out she's his cousin...he still thinks she's a more viable love interest than he is.

-> ''I can see you standin', honey''
-> ''With his arms around your body''
-> ''Laughin' but the joke's not funny at all.''

[[folder:Fanfic]]

* Gale suffers this in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', when he has to watch his best friend and crush Katniss, kiss Peeta -- and eventually [[spoiler:become engaged to him]] -- on national television. She's only pretending as a strategy for the Games (and later to placate President Snow [[IHaveYourWife to keep her family safe]]), but that doesn't make it much easier on Gale. In the second book, Katniss takes a moment to try to step into his shoes and envision how she would feel if Gale had gone to the Games instead and ended up pretending to love some other girl. She's blown away by how jealous and angry she becomes just imagining it.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': [[spoiler:Korra makes the move and kisses Mako after a few episodes of BeligerentSexualTension... right as [[DoggedNiceGuy Bolin]] showed up to confess his feelings to Korra. Bolin then runs away in tears causing Mako to go after him, making an already awkward moment even worse.]]

* ''ComicBook/LesAiglesDeRome'': To break off the burgeoning (and politically-inconvenient) relationship between Marcus and her daughter Priscilla, the HighClassCallGirl Morphea forces Priscilla to overhear her having sex with Marcus (having drugged and bound him beforehand), and hear Marcus say he loves Morphea. As soon as Priscilla's gone she has Marcus thrown out.

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': In season 2 episode 5, while promenading and courting Edwina, Anthony Bridgerton glares jealously at Kate Sharma and her seemingly-suitor, Thomas Dorset, having fun on a boat. He eventually comes over trying to upstage Dorset in courting Kate. [[spoiler: HilarityEnsues It doesn't end well]].

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': In season 2 episode 5, while promenading and courting Edwina, Anthony Bridgerton glares jealously at Kate Sharma and her seemingly-suitor, Thomas Dorset, having fun on a boat. He eventually comes over trying to upstage Dorset in courting Kate. [[spoiler:HilarityEnsues It doesn't end well]].